A new survey has shown that pharmacies and proprietary patent medicine vendors make family planning (FP) commodities available to Nigerians more than health facilities.
The study, conducted by the PSI in collaboration with the Society for Family Health (SFH), also reveals that women prefer moving far away from their neighbourhoods to get family planning commodities and services.
Results of the research titled ‘Consumer’s Market for Family Planning (CM4FP)’ were disseminated in Abuja recently.
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The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded the research.
However, its findings are not nationally representative because the researchers picked only a few locations for the study in the country and the locations excluded rural communities.
The locations are: Niger State (classified as semi-urban), Kaduna State (medium-urban), Abia State (small-urban), and Lagos State (large-urban).
Apart from Nigeria, the study was done in Kenya and Uganda.
From the findings in Nigeria, drug vendors (PPMV/ drug shops/ chemists) provide 48 per cent of FP commodities, community health workers offer 20 per cent, and pharmacists render 14 per cent of the services.
Hospitals provide nine per cent, primary health centres cater to the need of four per cent of users, clinics offer three per cent, and other entities make the remaining two per cent available.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), family planning allows individuals and couples to anticipate and attain their desired number of children and the spacing and timing of their births.
This is achieved through the use of contraceptives and the treatment of involuntary infertility.
Proximity and service quality were the top considerations driving consumers’ choice of their most recent FP source, yet the study states that other considerations mattered more for many consumers.
Some contraceptives include: male condoms, oral contraceptive pills, emergency contraceptive pills, injectables, implants, and intrauterine devices.
Only six per cent of matched women in the study accessed family planning at their nearest outlet, while one-thirds utilised the nearest facility, the study shows.
The researchers boast that CM4FP’s approach to directly linking consumers to their local markets provides novel insights into women’s decision-making and access to FP in complex, urban markets.
They add that the outcomes highlight the complexity of the total FP market, particularly outside of traditional ‘brick-and-mortar’ health facilities.
Speaking on the outcomes, Managing Director of the Society for Family Health Omokhudu Idogho says the research helps his team ‘laze the trail in the democratisation of data.’
“The whole finding from this study, which is very interesting, is available online. That allows anybody, policymakers, students in universities, media to go and check the data and see what they mean,” he adds.
Idogho says the Nigerian government, through the director of family planning, Federal Ministry of Health, was the principal investigator in the research.
He expresses hope that government and partners will make more funding available for family planning in the country.
On the challenges facing family planning in the country, Idogho says the capacity of service providers and community value systems are most important.
He says the nation’s population can be a demographic dividend and challenge, depending on how it is managed.
He also calls on the government to invest in the social and human capital and education of all children.
Marcus bears the light, and he beams it everywhere. He's a good governance and decent society advocate. He's The ICIR Reporter of the Year 2022 and has been the organisation's News Editor since September 2023. Contact him via email @ [email protected]